Russia’s EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov

BRUSSELS, March 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Practical moves targeting Russia over the Ukrainian crisis, suggested by the EU foreign ministers at an emergency meeting on Monday, look “more modest than political statements,” Russia’s EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said commenting on the session’s final statement.

“It was interesting to see among possible ‘punitive’ measures the freezing of visa talks with Russia. I may say that they are already frozen, regretfully, and the EU is to blame for this, so this will hardly add something,” Chizhov said. “As for suspension of talks on a new basic agreement between Russia and the EU, the ball is once again on the side of the European Union. Prior to the latest Russia-EU summit in January, we offered to boost this process, but the EU preferred to put it off until the next summit,” the EU ambassador added.

“As for the unfortunate association agreement between Ukraine and the EU, whose fate triggered the current crisis, again the EU said nothing new, as nothing was said about the timeframe for the renewal of this discussion and the signing of the agreements,” Chizhov added.

“As far as I understand, the dominating point of view is that the EU wants to sign it with a more legitimate government than the current one,” he added.

At the meeting in Brussels, EU foreign minister said targeted measures against Russia would be considered at an emergency summit of the EU heads of state and government on March 6 unless urgent measures were taken to defuse tensions in Ukraine.